Cops and Robbers
by Aimelee
Summary: A cop and a thief living under the same roof? How long can Lelouch keep his secret hidden? And how long can Suzaku be oblivious? And who is this new thief, calling himself "Zero"? Rating subject to change!


AN: I'm going to warn all of you right now: it's been, at least, a couple of year since I've written anything with a plot. But I think that this will be pretty good, since most of the writing will take place at four in the morning like this chapter did. (I'm so tired right now.) I'll try and update at least once a week, though, if enough people like this! So, I hope you enjoy, because I really enjoyed writing this. And feel free to give me some recommendations. I have a basic idea for the plot, but reader's opinions are gladly welcome.

(The rating will probably change from T to M once I feel like writing an explicit scene. Which might be never. Or it could be next chapter. Who knows?)

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of the characters I used. Obviously. I wouldn't have to publish this on if I owned it.

0o0o0o0

The cacophony of alarms continued to ring in the distance, the sound clear and alert even as Lelouch was furtively speeding farther away from the scene of the crime. He tore off his bulky mask and threw it into the backseat with the money. Even though it had only been a small bank, it was located down the street from a police hotspot, so there were constantly a few officers casually strolling around the bank, coffee and bagels in hand, making the area off limits for a long time. It wasn't so much that Lelouch wanted to target that particular bank, but he had needed a challenge since nothing else had been putting up much of a fight recently. Although, it hadn't proven to be much of one, in the end.

Lelouch watched as Rivalz drove slightly above the speed limit, but not enough to bring attention to them as they got lost in the traffic. It had taken longer than he had desired, but he trained Rivalz to be a near perfect sidekick. Well, his title was sidekick to please him. But really, Lelouch kept him around because he had the quintessential getaway car. The only problem with Rivalz was that he got nervous very easily. And when Rivalz was nervous, he talked. A lot.

"I don't think anyone is following us. I don't see anyone. But they might be trailing us from a few cars back. What do we do if there's a cop behind us and they just don't have their lights on so they don't raise suspicion? Wait, what if there's a bunch of cops behind us, and they're following us without turning on their lights? Do I turn down this alley or the next one? Oh god, is that a cop car? Lelouch-"

"Rivalz." Lelouch spoke with an almost vitriolic tone. "Number one: we are fine. Number two: if there's someone following us, I'll take care of it. Number three: we are _fine_. Number four: it's the alley after this one. And number five: We. Are. Fine."

"…Okay, Lelouch." Rivalz said nothing after that.

0o0o0o0

"Seems like there's something going on at the bank."

Suzaku glanced out the window of the small café, completely oblivious and with very little interest. "Hm?"

Gino cupped his coffee and took a sip, following Suzaku's gaze out the window in a half-assed attempt to see what was happening. "Who knows? But I don't think we should concern ourselves unless they call for us."

Suzaku had no intention of bothering, anyway. He had had a long enough night, cooped up in his small office, sorting and filing papers that he had been neglecting for weeks. It wasn't that he was unorganized; it was just that… he wasn't organized. But when you're in and out of the station as much as he was, you tended to let such things as cleanliness slip your mind. Being fastidious had never been high on his list of important things he should worry about.

Gino took a bite of his bagel and spoke up, his mouth still full. "So, I hope your night was more eventful than mine. There's nothing worse than taking the night shift on Tuesday. I can't think of anything more mind-numbingly tedious than having to man the phones, where the only calls you get are noise complaints and the occasional hit-and-run."

"I'll take over your phone shifts for a year if you clean my office."

Gino let out a half-hearted laugh. "I'll stick to the bitchy housewives complaining about the neighbor kids. I'd rather die of boredom than get lost in your sea of trash."

Suzaku kicked him under the table, mumbling, "Yeah, fuck you, too."

It was then that their radios simultaneously went off, calling for a code 211. Suzaku sighed, downed the rest of his coffee, and stood up. He wistfully recalled his military training and wondered why he decided leave to enroll in the police force. While the ability to be at home more was a huge plus, he wondered if it had really been worth it.

Suzaku got into the squad car with Gino, flipped on the lights, and pulled out, driving down the street to the bank that they were called to. There were people gathered around the sizeable door into the building, but very few of them were in blue, so the suspect(s) had most likely already gotten away and were being chased.

At least, that's what Suzaku thought, until he noticed that everyone else from the café were pulling up right behind him. So, maybe the suspect(s) had already gotten away, but were not being chased. Perfect. That meant more work for him.

0o0o0o0

Rivalz parked in a secluded alley a block down from his apartment while Lelouch pulled the money out and started stacking it out evenly into multiple black briefcases. He glanced over at Rivalz as he was piling the bills into the case tightly. His technique was akin to that of Lelouch's. Rivalz had been a pain in the ass in the beginning, but he turned out to be a pretty commendable partner. And working with him had given him complete carte blanche to do whatever he so pleased, since Rivalz wasn't about to attempt to take initiative.

After the money was all packed away, they each took a briefcase and promptly got out of the car, leaving the rest on the floor of the vehicle. At a brisk pace, they set off toward the apartment complex, trying to bring as little attention to themselves as possible, despite the street being near-empty. Dropping off both of the cases, they went back and repeated the same process three more times until they had all of the money back inside of the apartment. Rivalz left Lelouch alone to pull the car into the complex's parking lot. Once the door was closed, he bolted it and dragged all of the briefcases over to the couch, centered in the middle of the small room. Rivalz's apartment was located on the outskirts of the city, where very little traffic ever ventured, half out of little interest in the attractions to be found there and half out of fear. He didn't live in the most idyllic neighborhood, but Lelouch wasn't about to argue. He didn't want to bring the car, or Rivalz really, to his house.

He pulled out the money and started quickly skimming through the bills to check how much they made it out with. Being able to only fit it all into six cases, he didn't have high hopes, but with any luck they had made it out with larger bills.

That was not the case. While there had been quite a few stacks of fifties and hundreds, most had been tens and twenties. They'd pulled maybe $3,500, maybe $4,000 if he rounded up.

Rivalz knocked on the door as Lelouch was stashing away the rest of the cash. Quickly closing up the briefcases, he unlocked the door for his comrade. "Not so good this time, Rivalz. Only about four grand." He might as well tell Rivalz four thousand to give him a lower cut. Rivalz might have been an old friend/acquaintance from high school, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to finagle him out of as much of his 80/20 share as he could.

"Seriously? After all of that? Shit…"

After taking his $3,200 and placing it in the appropriate cases, he proceeded to repeat the previous process back to his own car with five of the six cases, opting to take most of the smaller bills. They were easier to explain away, anyhow.

Happy to finally be away from the over-bearing Rivalz, Lelouch relaxed into the seat as he drove. He was not the most gregarious individual on the planet, but he considered himself to be somewhat tolerant of most people. But Rivalz tended to frustrate him much too easily. Lelouch enjoyed the silence as he gradually got closer to his own home, slowed down by the five o' clock rush hour.

He repeated the process with the cases for the third time in the past hour and a half once he reached his house. While it did get tiresome to only be able to go with one at a time, it was much better than drawing attention to himself by walking into the house with three briefcases stacked on top of each other. So, always concerning himself with his attention to detail, he hastily dragged them inside.

While five cases full of money don't seem like they would be incredibly strenuous to lift, Lelouch had, what Milly liked to refer to as, a "noodlesque figure", which made tasks such as lifting five cases full of money very strenuous, actually. Especially overhead. Which was exactly where Lelouch had decided was the perfect place to hide them, for some reason. He could not fathom why while attempting to not drop the cases on his face.

After he got two of the briefcases on the top shelf of the hallway closet, he heard the front door's lock click open. Panicking, he quickly got down, grabbed the other three cases, dragged them into his bedroom, and quite literally threw them underneath the bed as he heard the front door snap shut and a voice calling out to him.

0o0o0o0

After a few hours of hopeless searching, considering all they knew was that they were looking for was a beaten-up, black car with two males in the front seats, Suzaku and Gino had been called back to the station. "Well that was two hours of my life I'll never get back."

Gino glanced at Suzaku, then back out the window, watching the scenery flash by. "Tell me about it. I mean, we could have been spending that time staring off into space or rearranging all of your coffee cups by how many layers of dust they have. Y'know, something useful."

"…Why do I even bother talking to you? You never have anything useful to say or, god forbid, something that _doesn't_ make me want to punch you in the face."

Gino didn't say anything. Instead, he continued fidgeting and rocking. Gino had a few idiosyncratic habits. Whenever he was in a car, he had to constantly be moving, which irritated Suzaku to no end. Why couldn't he just sit still for two minutes? At the office, he would always leave as soon as his shift was over. Gino made sure that he never stayed a minute longer than necessary. Then again, that could be less of a habit and more of a desire to get the hell out those stuffy offices. Which Suzaku understood completely. Speaking of which, it was almost time for him to clock out for the day.

As soon as they got back to the station, Suzaku went straight into his office, unlocked the bottom cabinet of his desk, and pulled out his bottle of bourbon and a shot glass, which was the only thing that got him through most of his shifts. He drank himself silly for the last half hour before he could go home.

Once clocking himself out, he immediately headed for home. Occasionally he would go to the bar after work, but it was Wednesday and he knew he'd be in trouble if he didn't come home for dinner, drunk or not.

Getting out of the car and sluggishly dragging himself up the steps, he fumbled for his keys and tried to figure out which one was his house key. Why did he have so many fucking keys in the first place? Once he finally picked it out and opened the door, he heard a sudden crash and quick shuffling. "Um… I'm home? Are you okay?" he called out, as he shut the door.

Lelouch suddenly poked his head out from around the corner of the hallway. "Suzaku! Welcome home!"

0o0o0o0

AN: I bet none of you saw that coming! Haha! Well, I hope it wasn't too horrible. I'm still a bit rusty, but I'll get back into the groove of things soon enough. (And sorry if there's a few strange words thrown around. Especially "idiosyncratic". I recently found that one and I really wanted to use it. Make sure to look out for the next chapter! And please review if you enjoyed it. It keeps us silly writers happy!


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